We’re all familiar with the image of a torch carrying masked man with a horizontal stripped sweater, climbing out a window with a bulging bag of ‘swag’ slung over his shoulder. The fact is, the front and back doors of your home will be the first points a burglar will try in order to gain entry into your property, and to make their exit by. So before you purchase the latest spyware security technology, think about investing in a good home security door first.
There are various ways you can go about installing home door security, the costs of which range greatly. So let’s review the most commonly used door security methods so you can choose the options that are within your budget:
Home Security Door Bar:
The door security bar, also referred to as the door jammer, is one of the inexpensive security devices you can opt for. The door bar can be used for both hinged or sliding patio doors and can be installed in seconds.
The door bar has an adjustable length so it can fit your door size. For use on hinged doors it has a pivoting ball joint and padded foot that retains full contact with the floor without scratching. The head of the bar is pushed under your door handle, making this a simple but very effective home door security device. For use on patio doors you adjust the home security door jammer length to suit your door size, and then simply set it in the sliding door jam, no tools required.
The door bar is easy and fast to install, affordable and will give you extra security and peace of mind.
To see pricing and customer reviews click the link below:
Master Lock 265DCCSEN Dual-Function Security Bar
Security Storm Door
More expensive than door bars, security storm doors help you to project your family and home from home invasions. If you opt for a home security door, ensure it is certified to have passed tests by a nationally recognized laboratory for effectiveness against possible break-ins and damage of a typical forced entry attempt. Each door has a protection rating that you can use to establish their effectivness as security doors in your home. Check to ensure the doors you choose have been tested for break-in resistance, pry resistance and UV resistance before purchase.
See customer reviews and pricing at the following link:
First Alert Security Storm Door
Home Security Door Alarm:
If you have implemented both items reviewed above there is little chance you will need a home security door alarm. But in the interest of ultimate safety and peace of mind, it would be best to install even a simple door contact alarm. These alarms consist of two mental plates that create a circuit when the door is closed and the alarm switched on. If the door opens the two plates are parted and circuit breaks. This triggers the device which then emits a high pitched alarm. Some devices may also have lights that are also triggered at the same time.
Needless to say the alarm will warn the occupants that there is a break-in attempt taking place, and if the burglar has not had a heart attack, he is probably exiting your property at high speed, heading for his hideout.
See pricing and customer reviews for one of the most popular home security door alarm systems:
Home Wireless Alarm System
We’ve reviewed three ways to bring your home security door up to task. Installing any one of these systems will make your home safer against burglaries and increase you and your families piece of mind. To follow on we’ll look at several ways to make your doors more secure.
Door Security Advice
One of the most common ways to illegally enter a property is to simply open an unlooked door. The first test to securing your home is to lock doors behind you. Even if you leave your property to call into a neighbor for a few minutes, it is best to lock your doors and windows to prevent intruders gaining easy access to your home.
Strengthening Doors To Make Them More Secure
Quality solid hardwood doors and hollow-core metal doors are the most secure to use for outside doors. Doors with glass are significantly less secure as the glass can be cut or smashed, and often burglars can reach through to unlock the door latch and enter the house. With this in mind, further measures are advised to secure your outside doors.
First ensure the door fits tightly within the door frame. This make it more time consuming and difficult for burglars to use a jimmy-bar to pry the door open from it’s frame until the bolt slides out of the receiver. Replacing a door or frame can be expensive, so a lower cost solution is to install an L-shaped metal strip for the frame. This solution (suitable for inward opening doors) prevents the burglar from using a jimmy-bar to prize-open the door. For outward opening doors the gap between door and frame can be reduced by installing a metal strip to the edge of the door, making it snug against the door frame and more difficult for burglars to force open. Next lets look at door locks.
Why Double-Cylinder Locks Offer Greater Security Than Single-Cylinder Locks
The difference between a single-cylinder and double-cylinder is that a single-cylinder has a knob on the inside of the lock that can be used to open it. A double-cylinder deadbolt lock requires a key on the inside of the lock to unlock the door.
Because double-cylinder locks require a key to be turned inside before the door will open, this makes the burglars attempt to break-in considerably harder than the single-cylinder lock. It’s important to note, that for security reasons, the key needs to be close at hand for double-cylinder locks encase of a fire or other emergency and the door needs to be used as an exit.
Door Chain Locks
Usually chain locks are not very effective as a major security device but they can be useful as a deterrent to intruders. If a burglar manages to open the door they will realize there is a chain lock applied and that there must be someone home. This will put off most intruders who prefer not to run the risk of getting caught.
Unfortunately, for those willing to take the risk, a door chain lock can easily be broken with a chain cutter. Alternatively they can be broken away from the door frame with a sharp kick or shoulder to the door. To maximize their effectiveness they should be installed with deep self-tapping screws or bolts. This will make it much more difficult to force.
They are useful if answering the door when you do not know who is calling, but again for the reasons mentioned above, a determined intruder will be able to force the lock eventually. In this instance, it is advisable to also have a door spy-hole installed.
Door Spy-holes
Spy-holes or peep-holes, should be included in outside doors with the obvious benefit of allowing occupants to see who is calling to their door.
Installing the peep-hole is straight forward. Drill a hole through your door (ensure it is at the correct height!), a 12mm drill bit should be sufficient. Then insert the two halves of the the device into either side of the door and twist to screw them firmly together.
This can work for wooden doors as well as UPVC, but seek advice before installing if you are in any doubt about the materials of your door or the tools you’ll need. You do not want to ruin a good door for the sake of a few dollars, so perhaps hire a professional or handyman to install the unit for you.
Door Spy-holes should also be included on inside garage doors that are used to enter your home.
Installing A Door Viewer Video
Door Bolt
A traditional and highly effective way of securing a door is to simply fit a sliding door bolt lock. They work buy sliding the bolt which is attached to the door, into a receiver in the frame. That’s it. The heavier door lock bolts, attached with long screws to the door and frame take a considerably amount of power to force. A draw back with these is they could be easily unlocked if an intruder could reach the bolt through a broken window, so combine their use with double-cylinder locks for maximum effect.
Garage Door Security
Often overlooked in the home security drill, the garage door is often a vulnerable point of illegal entry for many burglars. Doors can be forced in a number of ways (that I’m not going to mention here), and our slippery fiend has scurried under the door, he has all the time and privacy he needs to get to work on the door that leads from your garage into your house.
Usually this is not as difficult as you might think, often these home entry doors are left unlocked, or have poor quality locks that are easy to work around. Treat this door like any other outside door. Us a double-cylinder lock, make sure it’s a solid wood without any glass or panels. Ensure it fits snugly in the door frame and that a jimmy-bar can not easily be used to pry it open. Also fit a contact or switch alarm on the inside of the door so that a siren will be triggered if it is opened unexpectedly. Also it is advisable to install a peep-hole in this door too.
Ideally the intruder won’t get this far. One very simple way to make his life hard, or to prevent him accessing the garage is to ensure the slide blot fitted to most garages is lock in place. See the diagram (please excuse my artwork, but I think it illustrates the idea, no pun intended!). To engage the garage lock, simply step on the bottom of the door to press it down to the floor, then slide the bolt into the garage door frame. Most will have a hole in the end of the bolt that a padlock can be secured to. It is advisable to use this look at night when you’re securing your home, and certainly if you are going to be out of town for an extended period of time.
Many garage doors also have receivers for padlocks on the base exterior of the outside of the door. Padlock both of these when leaving home. If only one is secured, an intruder may be able to wedge a tool under the unsecured side do the door to give himself enough room to crawl under and into the garage.
Don’t rely on padlocks alone to secure garage doors as these locks (and many others) can easily be opened with bump keys.
Can My Doors Be Opened With A Bump Key?
Bump keys are keys made from a standard household key template, cut in a certain way. They’ve been publicised online enough recently, but for the uninformed they are an extremely effective way to crack most locks. Apparently Medeco and Schlage Primus are supposed to be the more difficult or near impossible to bump, but will cost more than standard cylinder locks. Might be money well spent though!
One inexpensive method that is supposed to protect your locks to some extent, but is not foolproof, is to spray WD-40 into the lock which will make the pins more slippery and difficult to bump. If you’re shopping around for new locks look for devices that require more mechanical moves and that have a secondary groove.
If you want to go all futuristic you can get a BioAxxis biometric lock for less than $200. You can input and record your fingerprint into the lock, and with a single touch of your finger on the sensor pad you can unlock the door. Click here to see more details.
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